Trading was very choppy after Monday’s sharp losses; at times share values did pick up, but investors remain deeply worried about the state of the US economy, which is in danger of slipping back into recession, and even more so about the euro zone crisis

The biggest concern is that austerity measures in places like Greece and Italy will not be enough – and the region is too interconnected:

Analyst Francois Chaulet of Montsegur Finance in Paris said: “At the moment, the financial markets are putting the politicians to the test. As far as Europe is concerned with regard to the future economic governance of the region and the euro zone, there is a real lack of trust in that from the Anglo-Saxon world.”

Amid all this, investors were still buying those shares that they considered to be good value because prices have fallen so much, but mostly they see the stock markets as too risky which is why they’ve been buying the safer government bonds like Germany’s as well as gold and the Swiss franc.